mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

All you need to know about this team is that they got 74 seconds of 5-on-3; during that time they were soundly outworked, and the only scoring chance was a one-man breakaway by a defenseman... for Western. He hit the post.

In past years Michigan has struggled but at least looked good on the ice. The year they won the CCHA to keep the streak alive, most of the season was a confusing mess of losing games in which they outshot opponents, bad luck, and so on. This year they just plain look awful. I haven't seen Michigan look this incompetent in hockey since that UM-MSU game my parents took me to in the 80s when MSU fans filled half the arena and MIchigan was a hockey neophyte.

Getting soundly outplayed at home by a superior team as your team plays out the string; scoring a cosmetic goal to reduce an uncatchable deficit to 2; chanting at the goalie: So THIS is what it feels like to be a Western fan.

That was absolute ass. The team, the crowd, all ass. Yost is starting to become a library because all the rich a-holes are buying all the rest of the tickets. It wasn't only this way tonight, I noticed it back in October too when they played Sparty.

Oh and I sat in the section next to Brian. I was gonna say hi but I was pissed and he looked like he was too.

Yost isn't being quiet "because of all the rich a-holes". It's quiet because the team is getting beaten like 3-1, 4-2 every game they play. It's hard to be crazy for a team that's 5-4 at home and whose last win came against a BGSU team somehow more pathetic than ours

The crowd has had the life beat out of them. It's entirely natural to be less enthusiastic when your team stinks.

Seriously, it's not like there's much to cheer about here. There's some talent, but it's not playing to potential. It's not one of those underdog teams that lacks skill but plays its guts out. They're apparently not a great group of character guys you just want to get a chance to win. It's the hardest kind of team to cheer for.

This team just got thoroughly manhandled and deservedly beaten in its own arena, after two weeks of "thinking about it." There seems to be a full-on meltdown, and given that we have guys like Trouba who have other places to go, this could hurt us for years.

I'm talking outside of the student section. I don't remember it being this bad before. Thefour bronco fans in my section could be heard over the entire arena. I was also pissed that I had to sit by two Pioneer lax bros (no offense to lax bros) that showed up with 2 minutes left in the 1st and ended up leaving early.

I see you commenting often about Michigan hockey, which suggests to me that you know what you're talking about. I love hockey, but t I've only been following the team as long as I've been a student. Do you have any idea what could have happened to this team? How are we so bad? Why is our forecheck so weak and passing so sloppy? We had a legitimately good team last year, and not that many people left. I'm going to keep going to every game I can, but damn is it much less fun to do so this year.

Mel Pearson joined the UM staff for the 88/89 season, after Red had been here four years. Two years later, UM made the NCAA for the first time under Red, for the 90/91 season. That season started our 22-year streak of appearances in the NCAA tournament.

Pearson departed for the head job at Michigan Tech for the 2011/12 season, and last year we made the tournament almost in spite of ourselves. It was hardly a season distinguished by great play, with the singular exception of Hunwick. Now, in the second season since Pearson's departure, the team appears rudderless. The injuries to key players have obviously been critical, but as many have noted here and elsewhere, the guys that are on the ice are playing uncharacteristically poorly. Unless there's a dramatic turnaround, our streak of making the NCAAs is going to end.

I asked Brian about the possible impact of Pearson's exit on the radio Thursday morning, and he figuratively threw up his hands and said "I dunno." Any opinions out there?

Occasional excess is necessary to remedy the deadening effects of moderation.

Partly because last year they ended up with a one-seed. Which yah, a lot due to Hunwick, but that's not really making the tournament "almost in spite of ourselves". They played good hockey for a decent part of that season. Partly because nobody that ever has any real contact with the program ever has ever entertained that as a possible reason when it's been thrown out. Parly becuase as good as Mel is, Red, Billy and Brian know what they're doing, too. Partly just because they're SO bad this year. I could maybe see the argument if it was a relatively slow decline, but this is just a complete and utter mess. That's a covergence of a whole ton of things, not entirely attributable to the leaving of one assistant coach.

When Mel left, I was most concerned over how Michigan was going to replace his recruiting. Looking at the classes for the next few years (which are considerably better than the classes from the last few years), I'm not really concerned about that anymore.

The coaching staff Michigan has now is not really shitty, that I promise.

I think the fact that it hasn't been a slow decline is actually more supportive of the notion that his departure has had an impact, since he's been gone about only about 1.5 seasons or so. If the decline had been over several years it would be an argument that his leaving isn't that big a deal.

As far as anyone with close contact with the program not mentioning Mel's departure as a factor, I wouldn't expect anybody in that situation to, since it can be interpreted as a criticism of the current staff. Regardless, by no means am I an expert on the team, and I'm just raising the question partially out of puzzlement with how things have fallen apart this season.

In a rough way it's analogous to the 1984 season in Michigan football. Harbaugh broke his arm in a loss to MSU, and the season seemed to go in the dumper after that. Going 6-6 was simply unheard of for Bo, and if the internet had been around we'd all be trying to figure out if he had lost his mojo. There is one difference, though: in '84, Bo was 55, whereas Red is now 73.

Occasional excess is necessary to remedy the deadening effects of moderation.

we'll have to disagree on the time frame. I don't think losing 1/4 of an immensely successful staff, replacing him with someone who is, on paper, very qualified, should result in an immediate and dramatic worsening.

By close contact to the program, I don't mean just coaches and players and AD staff and all that. I'm talking about Spath/Miller/media types who have been around forever, aren't at all afraid to criticize anything and everything and still have nothing but positive things to say about the staff and Red. And his age isn't a problem. If Red thought anybody, anywhere, could do a better job than him, Red would be out and somebody else would be in.

Honestly, my best shot at someone to pin it on, and it sounds just as crazy to me, is Hunwick. Michigan shouldn't have made the tournament a few years ago, running through the CCHA finals. They weren't good. The team rallied around Hunwick, he made some magic and kept alive a streak that should have died then. The next few years were a little better, but Hunwick masked a ton of mistakes. The defense was good, numerically, last year, but every game I saw in person, I saw a lot of good opportunities that Hunwick somehow managed to turn aside, along with keeping out everything he should keep out. He was incredible. The defense, I was less impressed with, for the most part. But everybody thought they were good, they thought they were good. Now, Hunwick is gone, both the heirs apparent are in the CHLand we have two average-at-best goalies who are NOT masking any defensive deficiencies like Hunwick did the last few seasons and letting in more than a few goals that are pretty weak. Now, nobody has any confidence in anyobdy, especially the team in the goalie. They're running around, pressing, everyone trying to be a hero instead playing together and trusting the other guy to do his job, so defensively, guys are left glaringly open, offensively there's no rhythym and everywhere passing is atrocious and the communication is non-existant. And it's only getting worse. They played well against Miami and the game at home against State, but since getting annhilated at Munn, it's been all downhill, rapidly.